Critical Linking: March 17, 2012

“A quarter of college students now own a tablet, compared to just 7 percent last year. Seventeen percent of college-bound high school seniors own a tablet, compared to four percent last year.”

This is the demo to watch, folks. Quadruple the number in one year. Holy crap.

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“The Strand’s argument that financial pressure from the online book industry is forcing them to make sacrifices in order to keep their doors open sounds very understandable. But according to one employee in his 20s, who asked to remain anonymous, and who’s worked at The Strand for over a year, the store achieved record sales last Christmas.”

This new world we live in can be exciting, but it’s also sometimes tough to watch unfold.

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The coverage of 50 Shades and the number of women willing to discuss their own arousal, and the equation of their reading material with pornography makes me ponder seriously the lines of demarcation between romance and erotica, erotica and pornography, and – hold on to your hatpins – romance and pornography.